Alert Congress Before Head Start Increases Federal Nanny State


EdAction Alert —
June 20, 2005


Alert Congress Before Head Start Increases Federal Nanny State

Head Start, HR 2123


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        Continuing
to assume the right and constitutional authority that it does not have,
the federal government is extending its illegitimate takeover of K-12
education downward to the birth to five age range with the
reauthorization of Head Start, HR 2123. The bill makes some invalid
assumptions, such as:

  • That federal
    education programs are able to close the achievement gap, or
    eradicate poverty;

  • That social and
    emotional learning is necessary for a good education and can be
    objectively taught and assessed;

  • That social and
    emotional learning is only about self-discipline, sharing, and
    waiting ones turn, when it has proved to be about setting
    government derived norms for mental health or indoctrinating a
    political worldview in very young children;

  • That state
    standards for K-12 education or early learning are unique to each
    state, locally derived, and have nothing to do with worldview
    indoctrinating national standards (federal curriculum);

  • That states are
    making bad choices independently, and that HR 2123 does not promote
    a federal curriculum for pre-schoolers by forcing states to align
    their Head Start programs to these standards, thereby absolving the
    federal government of responsibility for its interference;

  • And that poor
    people and minorities have, by virtue of their poverty and other
    stresses, flawed brain biochemistry that can only be fixed via
    mental health screening and powerful, potentially lethal
    psychotropic drugs.

        The
failure of Head Start and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA/NCLB)
despite 40 years and untold billions of dollars; the failure of any
preschool programs to show more than temporary academic gains; the
proliferation of radical, minimum competency non-academic standards in
every state that just happen to be nearly identical; and the frightening
increase in the psychiatric labeling and drugging of children with
ineffective and dangerous medications should amply show these
assumptions lack of validity.
 
        Although HR 2123 makes some important
improvements in financial accountability and some impressive strides
towards parental rights, and although it was likely drafted with good
intentions, it has some very dangerous provisions. 

        HR 2123, soon to be heard on the floor of the
U.S. House, does the following: 

  • Implements
    radical curriculum standards for preschoolers in every state that
    teach toddlers about socioemotional (mental health) teaching, gender
    identity, diversity training, careers, social activism, and
    environmentalism;

  • Extends No Child
    Left Behind standards and testing to preschoolers;

  • Extends these
    curriculum standards to all children via state and local
    integration, and;

  • Continues the
    role of government in the mental health of very young children and
    their families. 

1.  Implements
radical curriculum standards for preschoolers in every state.
        Head Start has published a

Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, heavily influenced by the
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which
is known for its controversial early learning credentialing system. (See
“Child
Care Credentialing and NAEYC’s Anti-Bias Curriculum.”)

        HR 2321 requires states to align their Head Start
programs with either the radical Head Start Child Outcomes or with their
own state early learning curriculum standards, many of which are also
based on this same Head Start/NAEYC Framework. Curriculum standards for
preschoolers in individual states are then applied to other state
programs. In this way, Head Start sets the norm for what will eventually
be required of all children. The Head Start Outcomes become part of a
seamless system of controversial government required standards from
birth through twelfth grade.


  The Head Start Outcomes do the following:

  • put the state
    and federal governments in charge of what is normal mental health.
    The Outcomes use extremely vague and subjective criteria under the
    mantle of social and emotional standards;

  • bring up issues
    of gender and group identity to three and four year olds; and

  • begin discussing
    careers and jobs with young children. 

2.  Extends No Child
Left Behind standards and testing to preschoolers.
        HR 2321 requires Head Start to be aligned with
NCLB content standards.and its assessments. State standards and
assessments under NCLB have become dumbed down, non-academic,
indoctrinating outcomes that states have adopted based on national
standards (federal curriculum). Significant opposition has developed
against extending NCLB to high school. Extending them to the nations
youngest and most vulnerable children makes even less sense than
extending NCLB to high shcool. (See next point, below). 

3.  Extends curriculum standards to all children via state and local
integration.
        This aligned system of standards and programs is
not just for poor, at-risk children, but rather for all children due to
this required integration on the local and state levels with public
preschool programs, and it will eventually force faith based programs to
teach Head Start curriculum standards. As described above, some of these
curriculum standards are very radical, and would be contrary to their
philosophy. The result would be to force faith based programs out of
Head Start or out of business altogether.

4.  Continues the role of government in the mental health of very young
children and their families. 
        HR 2321 re-inserts mental and behavioral health
care into Head Start. These diagnostic criteria for mental disorders are
extremely vague and subjective, as admitted by the US Surgeon General,
the World Health Organization, and many psychiatric textbook
authors.They are extremely difficult to accurately apply to young
children. As a result of the New Freedom Commission recommendations for
screening and drugging, this emphasis on mental health for very young
children will result in increased screening and psychiatric drugging of
infants and toddlers with drugs admitted to be ineffective and dangerous
for children. (See

here for details) 

        The House Committee on Education and the
Workforce is to be highly commended for their commitment to protecting
the fundamental right of parental consent for health services and
screening, similar to language in the

The Parental Consent Act, HR 181.  It is also very important to
prevent coercive drugging.

The Child Medication Safety Act (CMSA),
HR 1790, does that and should be included in Head Start. CMSA is a
legislative priority for the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP), because they are concerned about
disproportionate identification and drugging of minority youth.  One
would assume that this concern would extend to minority toddlers and
their families.

We need your help
        EdAction is now alerting you, our subscribers, to
urge you to give your own Members of Congress urgent notice that the
Head Start re-authorization must be amended to address these concerns
before it passes out of the House of Representatives.  With the help of
Citizens for Health, we have developed an e-action alert to help you
contact your Member of Congress about the dangers of the Head Start
bill.  Just

click here to contact House Members to urge them to support
amendments that will do the following:

1) Stop the required alignment
of Head Start to the state content standards of NCLB, state early
learning standards, and / or the national Head Start Outcomes so
that the radical worldview of these standards will not be imposed on
our youngest, most vulnerable children;

2)  Remove the newly required
integration of Head Start with every state public preschool program;

3)  Remove requirements for
social and emotional teaching;

4)  Make it absolutely clear
that any mental health screening requires informed, written consent,
and that coerced screening or drugging of children is prohibited

To follow up with a
phone call or fax, find your U.S. House Member contact information
here.
Thank you.
 
DISCLAIMER: EdAction
thanks Citizens for Health for their support and for the use of this
action alert to contact Congress on this important issue.  The views and
programs endorsed by Citizens for Health on their website are not
necessarily those of EdAction. If you are not interested in receiving
health information from Citizens for Health at this time, please be sure
to uncheck the box that offers it that is just beneath the contact
information you provide.

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